“State investigators work to uncover insurance and tax fraud in order to protect consumers, workers and law-abiding business owners. Many of these cases can be complex and take time to investigate. We appreciate the dedication of investigators and detectives who conduct these investigations.”
CSLEA President Alan Barcelona
FRESNO— On June 10, 2024, Ruben Perez Mireles Jr., 49, of Clovis, and his business associate, John Mena, 29, of Lemoore, were arraigned on multiple felony counts including insurance fraud, grand theft, and tax fraud after a task force investigation led by the California Department of Insurance found they allegedly underreported more than $29.2 million in payroll for multiple businesses to illegally save on workers’ compensation insurance premiums and taxes.
Mireles and Mena operated two Kings County farm labor contracting companies, Vista Pacific Labor Solutions, Inc. and Calzona Ag Management, Inc. The investigation by the Central Valley Workers’ Compensation Fraud Task Force found that Mireles, owner of Vista Pacific Labor Solutions, Inc, allegedly underreported $7.6 million in employee payroll to his workers’ compensation insurance carrier for the period of September 2019 through August 2020. The alleged underreporting resulted in a premium loss of $1.7 million.
According to the California Department of Insurance, Mireles then created another farm labor contracting company, Calzona Ag Management, Inc. Mireles recruited Mena and together they shifted payroll to this new company to avoid an increased assessment of the business’ workplace safety, which would have more than doubled the insurance premium. It is alleged they underreported $8.8 million in employee payroll for the period of December 2019 through December 2021, resulting in an additional premium loss of $1.8 million.
Additionally, the task force investigation found Mireles allegedly underreported $12.8 million in employee payroll to the Employment Development Department and failed to report personal income to the Franchise Tax Board. This alleged underreporting resulted in a combined loss of approximately $3 million for unpaid tax liability, penalties, and interest. Mireles and Mena’s alleged fraud scheme defrauded their insurance carries, EDD, and FTB out of over $6.5 million.
According to the California Department of Insurance, Mireles fraudulently obtained a COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loan. After an investigation led by the FBI, Mireles pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison. Mireles was also in court on June 10th on additional felony charges for his role in an earlier workers’ compensation insurance fraud scheme, also uncovered by the task force.
Mireles has been charged with eight felony counts including workers’ compensation insurance fraud, grand theft, unemployment insurance fraud, and tax fraud. Mena has been charged with three felony counts of workers’ compensation insurance fraud and one felony count of grand theft.
The Central Valley Workers’ Compensation Fraud Task Force is an inter-agency anti-fraud partnership with members from the California Department of Insurance, the California Employment Development Department, the California Franchise Tax Board, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, the Madera County District Attorney’s Office, the Merced County District Attorney’s Office, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, and the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office.
The case is being prosecuted by Kings County District Attorney Sarah Hacker.
